The content below appeared in my <a href="{app}/view_article.php?id=4806">Links and Notes for October 6th, 2023</a>, which I managed to publish on October 21st. I've edited things lightly, but I'm publishing these reactions again to have them in a separate article and because I think my initial take has aged relatively well---especially as compared with that of European leaders like Frau Baerbock of Germany. The article <a href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/10/08/wkem-o08.html" author="Alex Lantier" source="WSWS">Netanyahu regime staggered by Palestinian uprising</a> was published on October 8th and writes, <bq>The <i>World Socialist Web Site</i> <b>condemns the vicious and obscenely hypocritical statements of President Joe Biden and leaders of the European Union</b> denouncing the Palestinian resistance as “terrorism” while supporting without any reservations Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.</bq> <bq>Pledging “rock-solid and unwavering” support for Israeli military operations against Gaza, Biden said: “The United States unequivocally condemns this appalling assault against Israel by Hamas terrorists from Gaza, and I made clear to Prime Minister Netanyahu that we stand ready to offer all appropriate means of support to the government and people of Israel.<fn> <b>Terrorism is never justified.</b> Israel has a right to defend itself and its people.”</bq> OMG 😱 the U.S. is so delighted to be able to wholeheartedly endorse the further tightening of the noose that they've been funding for years, but this time, because of the Palestinian attack---unprovoked, of course!---they feel like they can also reclaim the moral high ground, without doing any work at all. This is such a slam dunk that of course all the EU and US leaders are going to take it. They don't give a shit about anybody but themselves, but pretending to care about Israelis is not only lucrative, but more than occasionally politically necessary. No-one ever lost an election for not caring about Palestinians. Quite the contrary. Check out Baerbock, one of the truly worst, most ruthless, and most disgusting women in politics since ... Hillary Clinton? Margaret Thatcher? Condaleeza Rice? Susan Rice? Samantha Power? <bq>German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock declared: “<b>The odious violence of Hamas against civilians in Israel is unprecedented and unjustifiable.</b> This terrorism must stop immediately. Israel has our full solidarity.”</bq> Unprecedented! Not only unprovoked, but <i>unprecedented</i>! This, from a <i>fucking German!</i> A German is saying that Palestinian violence is unprecedented. You can't make this shit up. She is the <i>foreign minister</i>---the top diplomat---of that once progressive country. <bq><b>The hypocrisy of these statements is staggering. As always, the sympathies of the imperialist powers are with the oppressors.</b> Any manifestation of resistance by the oppressed is greeted with frenzied denunciations. The media ignores the fact that the Israeli government is led by a criminal, whose coalition is dominated by fascistic racists, and is engaged in efforts to suppress the constitution.</bq> The attacks are an act of desperation, of course. They knew exactly what would happen in response. I'm not sure whether they were just trying to tip Israel's hand, to force them to actually do something so awful that even a reprehensible c*#% like Baerbock would have to shut the f*#% up and sit down while the adults do the talking. <bq>On Saturday night, in a bloodcurdling address to the nation, Netanyahu told “residents of Gaza” to “get out now, because we will operate everywhere and with full force.” <b>Since his government blockades Gaza and does not let anyone leave, this is a declaration that Netanyahu sees Gaza’s entire population as a legitimate target.</b> Asserting that “Hamas wants to murder us all,” Netanyahu pledged to “fight them to the bitter end” and that cities where Hamas operates would turn into “cities of ruin.”</bq> Netanyahu will target civilians. He and his predecessors always have. The western world doesn't care at all. The money continues to flow.<fn> Of course, no-one will actually pay any attention to what the "enemy" has to say about why it's doing what it's doing. Putin knows the feeling. We fail to listen to our own detriment. This is not about capitulation to violence, but in learning what it would take to avoid it and to determine whether that price is too high. If we categorically refuse to even learn what the price might be, we are dishonorable, reckless, and exceedingly stupid hypocrites. Here is a part of Hamas's declaration. <img attachment="al-aqsa_mosque.jpg" align="right" caption="Al-Aqsa mosque"><bq>“As the Israeli occupation maintains its siege of the Gaza Strip and continues its crimes against our Palestinian people, while showing utmost disregard for international laws and resolutions amid US and Western support and international silence, we have decided to put an end to all of that. <b>We announce a military operation against the Israeli occupation, which comes in response to the continued Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and violations at the Al-Aqsa mosque.”</b></bq> They are referring of course to the multiple attacks <i>inside a mosque</i> carried out by Israeli police over the last couple of years. Most recently, people swept through, spitting on people. On Biden's watch, by the way. Utterly vile, but a neat tactic for provoking a violent response without actually striking first. If history is any guide, Gaza is truly going to get curb-stomped, probably worse than they've ever been before.<fn> As noted in <a href="https://www.counterpunch.org/2023/10/09/violence-begets-violence/" author="Raouf Halaby" source="CounterPunch">Violence Begets Violence</a> <bq>Hamas and its supporters will no doubt claim Saturday’s attack on Israel to be a victory. And in truth, <b>taking on one of the mightiest armies in the world is beyond belief. Breaking out of their open-air prison and with slingshots (Kalashnikovs, motorcycles, and a bulldozer), as compared to Israel’s infinite military might, the fifth strongest military in the world</b> with proven air, land, and sea prowess, will be celebrated by Hamas and across the Near East as a victory. <b>At best, it is a pyrrhic victory, one for which Palestinian citizens in Gaza and the West Bank, as happened in the past, will pay dearly.</b> Since 2008 Israel has launched four major wars on Gaza, each of which was more brutal than the preceding one. I fear that the current Israeli avenging war, unlike the previous ones, will exact a very heavy price on the 376 square-mile enclave, the world’s largest open-air prison in which 2.3 million Palestinians exist.</bq> <hr> The next article <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-wounded-weakened-israel-is-a-fiercer-one/" author="Haviv Rettig Gur" source="Times of Israel">A wounded, weakened Israel is a fiercer one</a> was already laying the groundwork for what was to come. <bq>Hamas did everything it could to shock Israelis, to humiliate and horrify, kidnapping children, desecrating corpses, and then crowing about it to the world. And <b>Israelis watched it all, minute by agonizing minute. And they agreed. Their weakness had become clear, unavoidable. And very, very dangerous.</b></bq> <bq>And it will soon learn the scale of that miscalculation. A strong Israel may tolerate a belligerent Hamas on its border; a weaker one cannot. <b>A safe Israel can spend much time and resources worrying about the humanitarian fallout from a Gaza ground war; a more vulnerable Israel cannot.</b> A wounded, weakened Israel is a fiercer Israel. <b>Hamas was once a tolerable threat. It just made itself an intolerable one, all while convincing Israelis they are too vulnerable and weak to respond with the old restraint.</b></bq> This is both true and a rallying cry. It's also amazing that the author is expecting us to believe that either the current or any previous Israeli leadership has lost any sleep about the humanitarian fallout. I mean, I'm sure that there has been some restraint from just outright murdering every Palestinian that crosses their paths, but, from out here, in the real world, it doesn't really look like much restraint is considered at all. If there's any concern about humanitarian fallout, it's lost in a rounding error. Israel has been exposed as weaker than it projected and it will react in the same way that the U.S. did, when a similar thing happened to it over 22 years ago. The younger people of Israel face the same choice that we Americans did at that time: seek understanding, wonder what those scarred wizened visages meant by "chickens coming home to roost", or double down, look inward, and lash out.<fn> It's quite obvious what Israel, led by Netanyahu, will do. It remains to be seen how much of the population of Israel follows, in their heart of hearts. Most Americans followed. Some questioned. Those who questioned didn't matter. Their opinions never do. There is no solace in being right when the world burns for so many others.<fn> <hr> The last article <a href="https://jacobin.com/2023/10/israel-palestine-violence-hamas-airstrikes-gaza-oppression/" author="Seraj Assi" source="Jacobin">The Violence in Palestine and Israel Is the Tragic Fruit of Brutal Oppression</a> writes, <bq>The tragic scenes unfolding in Gaza and Israel are a chilling reminder that occupation and oppression bear a price. For the truth is that when you imprison two million people in 140 square miles, placing them under a merciless siege with no end in sight, <b>with no way in or out, with drones and rockets buzzing overhead night and day, with constant surveillance and harassment, with scant control over their day-to-day lives — ultimately, the dispossessed will rebel.</b> The violence was not unprovoked, as the mainstream media has depicted it. It has been brewing and festering in every corner of the country. <b>In the West Bank, the Palestinian town of Jenin is still reeling from the devastation of a recent unsparing Israeli attack, which left the town a razed ghostland.</b> The small town of Huwara has yet to recover from the deadly horrors unleashed by settlers on its residents.</bq> It's not that Hamas didn't commit war crimes. It's more that the world shouldn't be surprised that it did. <bq>During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, <b>settlers stormed into the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, staging provocative tours, harassing and beating worshippers, and spitting on Christians.</b></bq> It doesn't justify the rocket attacks, but it goes a good way towards explaining them. If you want the rocket attacks to stop, you should consider all of the options: you could turn the screws even tighter, to make sure that no-one can get rockets. Or you could see what you would need to do for people to not even want rockets. That ship has probably sailed, but it might not be bad, as a thought experiment. <bq>The ongoing explosion in violence is the ugly reality of Israeli apartheid, the culmination of decades of occupation of a stateless people deprived of basic human rights and freedoms. <b>Unless the root causes are dismantled — the siege lifted, the apartheid system and occupation ended — violence will continue to tragically haunt Palestinians and Israelis for years to come.</b><fn></bq> <hr> <ft>21/2 months later and Biden has stuck to his word.</ft> <ft>Called it.</ft> <ft>Two for two.</ft> <ft>We know which way they chose by now.</ft> <ft>Three for three</ft> <ft>That's the path they're on, predicted 21/2 months ago (not by me, that's a citation from the author of the article).</ft>